


b[A]thtime

by AMX004_Qubeley



Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Angst/Comfort, Bathing, F/M, Post-Ending E (NieR: Automata)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-03 21:59:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17292203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMX004_Qubeley/pseuds/AMX004_Qubeley
Summary: 2B and 9S get very dirty. No, not like that.Secret Santa gift for Klam-Digguh (klam-digguh.tumblr.com), whose request was "anything with 9S and 2B."





	b[A]thtime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Klam-Digguh](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Klam-Digguh).



The rain had been cold and merciless as it fell from morning to night, churning the torn-apart fields of the city ruins into pits of muck and grime; 2B and 9S returned to the Resistance camp—or rather, with the war over, just the camp—after a long day of dispatching the few hostile machines and infected androids remaining in the city. They were covered head-to-toe in a vile mixture of mud, grease, and oil; their uniforms were heavy with rainwater and filth, their snow-white hair streaked with black grease, their skin stained with grime and soot.

Hardly able to keep her eyes open, 2B leaned against 9S, bracing herself on his shoulder, as the two of them staggered toward the camp’s washroom, both in desperate need of a good and thorough cleaning.

The washroom was larger than 2B had expected—to her surprise, a porcelain white tub stood adjacent to the typical shower stall. It seemed an unnecessary indulgence, considering that a quick rinse was all anyone ever needed.

“I’m taking a bath,” 9S announced, undoing the buttons on his coat and shrugging out of it, letting his mud-laden clothes fall to the floor with a wet slap. The rest of his clothes followed the coat, one-by-one until he was standing in nothing but his underwear. Even the now-bare skin that had been protected from the worst of the elements by his uniform was still filthy, and it was then that 2B realized how clammy and gritty her _own_ skin felt underneath her clothes.

Mud and sludge dripped from the hem of 2B’s sodden skirt onto the floor. She felt the cold muck and stubborn grime cling to her like a second skin and decided that, perhaps, a quick rinse would not suffice. “Me, too,” she said.

9S raised an eyebrow. 2B had scoffed at him for extolling the virtues of baths over showers time and time again, and it didn’t look like he was going to let her change of heart go unnoticed. “Really? Isn’t that a little, uh, _indulgent_ for you?”

“I, uh… The water pressure in the shower stall is too low,” 2B explained, feeling oddly defensive.

“All right,” 9S said, shrugging. “Good for you. Like I’ve always said, nothing’s more relaxing or therapeutic than a good, hot bath. Since you’re a recent convert,” he added, flashing a grin, “I’ll let you go first.”

“Thanks.”

He crouched at the side of the tub and turned a knob crowning the pewter faucet set into the wall just above it, loosing a spewing torrent of water. “I heard that in the old days, humans would put bombs into their bathtubs,” he said, raising his voice over the roar of the water.

“That sounds dangerous,” said 2B as she began to remove her boots and stockings. Though she could sense herself coalescing, she still didn’t feel all there—like a part of her was still unglued from the rest of her body. But feeling the slick leather of her uniform beneath her still-shaking, still slightly-numb hands made everything feel just a little realer to her.

“They weren’t, like, _bomb_ bombs,” 9S clarified. “At least, I don’t think so, because, uh, if so… uh, _yikes.”_ He cupped his hands under the running faucet, filling them with water, and splashed his face. Water rolled down his chin and neck and trickled down his chest, stained brown and gray from the dirt it had lifted from his skin. Although many stubborn patches of grease remained, the pink hue of his cheeks was now clearly visible.

“ _Bomb_ bombs,” 2B stated flatly. “As opposed to _non-_ bomb… bombs.”

“Yeah. These ‘bathing bombs’ were balls of powder that made the water fizz up. And they’d make it smell like fruit or flowers.” As the water level in the tub rose, 9S stuck his hand in for only a second before drawing it out and adjusting the knob on the faucet. His fingertips, now wet, had reddened slightly from the temperature of the water, which was now beginning to steam.

2B wished she had one of those ‘bathing bombs.’ The pungent stench of machine oil felt omnipresent.

“Humans would put foaming surfactants in the water to make it bubble up, too,” 9S said. “I’ve always wanted to try that. But…”

2B started to tune 9S out as she untied and removed her skirt with trembling fingers. This was the 9S she knew and had always known, always so eager to share what he knew with anybody who’d listen. Sometimes 2B would play dumb and pretend not to know anything about the surface, asking questions about animals, machines, and natural phenomena just so 9S could feel like he was teaching her things.

She had tried so hard not to get close to him, but it had just kept happening, over and over again. The first time she’d met him, she’d found it cute how he’d called her ‘ma’am,’ and the first time she’d called him ‘Nines,’ the way his mouth had split into such a happy grin had just made her feel so _warm_ inside. So many wonderful firsts and happy memories ran through her head… memories that had all soured so quickly as soon as she’d received the first order to kill him.

It was still hard to be open with him now, even with YoRHa gone and the war over and nothing standing in her way.

“…these things called, uh, ‘j’accuses,’ I think?” 9S continued. “There were pumps that blew jets of high-pressure water into the tub. They’d aerate the water and massage you at the same time! I can’t imagine how _good_ it must feel to be in one of those. I’m not much of a hardware guy, but maybe one of these days we can reverse-engineer them…”

2B felt her black box’s whirring tick up in frequency, a heavy weight seeming to press against her chest.

 _Stop thinking about the old days. Bury your past,_ she told herself. _Bury your past, bury your guilt, bury it all where you buried the other 9Ses._

But she didn’t _deserve_ to be free of that guilt, pressing down on her heart and mind like the ghosts of every single companion she’d slain…

“How about you test the water,” 9S suggested, “and make sure it’s not too hot?”

Of course, the problem was that there were so _many_ 9Ses who no longer existed because of her. All of them had stuck their noses where they weren’t welcome, all of them had uncovered devastating truths about YoRHa, truths even _she_ didn’t know, and had needed to be snuffed out. And it was—

“2B?”

2B realized she hadn’t been breathing. She could almost feel her black box growing hotter in her chest, burning like a lump of hot coal; the thickening air, rapidly growing more and more humid, didn’t help.

“Yes. Of course,” she said. Taking a deep breath and trying to settle her mind, she lifted her leg and stuck a toe into the water. It was only a little hotter than her body temperature, which could lead to overheating in the long term… but how long could a bath take, anyway?

“How is it?”

“Sufficient, I suppose.” 2B withdrew her foot and pulled her blouse over her head, tossing it to the floor with her skirt. She slipped out of her once-white singlet next, then removed the hairband trying its best (unsuccessfully) to hold her grimy and disheveled hair in place.

Standing naked before the tub of hot water, 2B suddenly felt doubtful there was anything it could do to lift her spirits, no matter what 9S said about its therapeutic properties.

She suddenly felt so, so stupid.

But 2B climbed in and laid down anyway, bending her long legs to fit the length of the tub and letting the water rush to welcome her. Her entire body save for her knees and face was submerged; as the warm water sloshed and lapped at her before settling, the air felt cold against her exposed skin. Her hair drifted in the water, weightless just as it was in microgravity; the mud that had stained her body and began to come loose from her skin, leaving dirty trails like curling wisps of smoke.

Androids and water typically didn’t mix. They had no buoyancy, making swimming more or less impossible; salt water in particular would permeate an android’s synthetic skin and flesh and wreak havoc on their metal composite chassis and their circuits, making bodies of water like the ocean not far from here a significant threat. Yet here in this small tub, caressed by liquid warmth, 2B felt safe.

9S was right.

For the first time, 2B noticed that 9S was steadfastly refusing to look at her.

“Um… so, uh, 2B, h-how does it feel? Good, right?” 9S asked, his cheeks painted bright pink as he intently studied the floor.

2B nodded.

“So, um,” 9S stammered, still averting his eyes from 2B’s nude form, “I, uh, I’ll just leave some soap and shampoo h-here with… Unless you’d… If you’d be okay with…”

2B sat up, the water sloshing around her, the air immediately setting upon and cooling her wet skin. Her sodden hair clung to her. “Yes? What is it?”

9S’s next words came out as a timid squeak as he finally forced herself to look at 2B, blood rushing to his face. “Can I… I mean…” He cleared his throat. “It’s been a rough day for you, and I know you must be tired…”

“That’s true.” 2B nodded. She felt like she had an inkling of what 9S wanted to ask her, but wasn’t sure she wanted to admit it to herself. “So… what’s on your mind?”

“Oh, well, I was just wondering,” 9S said, looking away yet again, “if maybe you wanted to just sit back and relax, and, um, let… me… do it?”

“And by ‘it’ you mean…”

9S nodded vigorously.

“Sure,” 2B said.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“ _Really_ really?”

“If you keep asking, I might change my mind.”

Without wasting a second 9S rolled up his sleeves and picked up a bar of soap. “All right,” he said, his voice shaking as much as his hands were, “let’s get started.”

He raised the waxy, oblong bar to her face first, rubbing it in a circular motion across her cheek. “Almost hard to believe there’s an _android_ under all this dirt. You’re almost as filthy as _A2,”_ he muttered, finishing with one cheek and starting on the other, then brushing her hair away from her forehead. “Close your eyes,” he said, “because this can sting if it gets in them.”

2B did so, letting darkness envelop her as 9S continued to scrub at her skin. His gentle touch, the sensation enhanced by the lack of visual stimuli to compete with, sent a shiver down her back. She’d never felt this way before, never let anybody touch her the way 9S was touching her now, no matter how much she’d wanted to. But it felt… good. _Better_ than good. It made her almost forget about the blissful warmth of the bathwater.

9S moved down to her neck next, getting under her chin and into the hollow of her throat, rubbing the slick and slippery soap across her collarbone and then her shoulders, working his way down her body centimeter by centimeter.

For the first time 2B allowed herself to entertain the idea of what it would feel like to let 9S’s fingers slip down the entire length of her body, slipping past every square centimeter of skin on the way down. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t had these thoughts before, but _this_ time, she didn’t let her strict and rigid mental conditioning quash them. She gave her fantasies free rein in her head at long last, knowing that they were finally coming true.

9S stopped.

“Keep going,” 2B found herself murmuring. But he didn’t.

2B’s daydream ran its course, leaving her with no company in her head but the same thoughts that had always troubled her.

Deep down, did 9S hate her for what she’d done to him? Had he right now reached the limit of how much he could pretend to care for her? Perhaps it had all been an act, and perhaps now, in such an intimate setting, he could no longer keep up the ruse and could no longer hide his true feelings toward her—loathing toward his murderer—

9S lifted her hand out of the bathwater and slipped the soap into it, helping her curl her stiff fingers around it, his gentle touch driving those thoughts from her head just as sunlight banished the morning fog. “Do you, uh, wanna do the rest?” he asked. He fumbled over his words nervously. “I mean, uh, it’s _your_ body, and if you’re not comfortable with me, uh, you know…”

2B’s breath hitched. _“Keep going,”_ she whispered.

Much to her relief, he kept going, driving all that intrusive angst and doubt from her head as his slick, soapy hands slid down her chest and glided down her stomach, fumbling gracelessly all the way. 2B lifted her head and let out a pleasurable sigh as another chill ran up her spine. But paradoxically, she felt warm, too—and not just from the bathwater. It was such an alien sensation to her, to yearn so deeply for such intimacy, to hunger for it, to crave it as much as her sword craved her enemies, but it felt so _right_ to crave it and to finally have that hunger satiated… She wanted to feel 9S’s touch everywhere it hurt, and it hurt _everywhere._ It always _had._ But now that she _knew_ that it hurt, it hurt worse than ever before. _  
_

But 9S erased the pain with his gentle touch, just as the soap in his hands erased the dirt from her skin.

One by one, 9S cleaned her arms, and then her legs, lifting each out of the water and scrubbing away the muck and grime that still clung to her skin before lowering each one in turn back into the water to soak.

“All right,” he said, “now for your hair.”

2B opened her eyes. 9S now held an uncapped bottle in his hand; he poured some of the viscous liquid contained within it into his palm, set the bottle down, and rubbed his hands together. His face was beet-red, his hands shaking, a wobbly grin on his face. “You’d better close your eyes again,” he told her. “This might sting, too.”

2B closed her eyes, bowed her head, and felt 9S’s fingers burrow into her hair, running through her disheveled and tangled locks and massaging her scalp as he worked the shampoo into a frothy lather. The pressure exerted by his fingers was harder and firmer, but not to the point at which it was uncomfortable. In fact, it felt even more relaxing and rejuvenating than before, and 2B wished 9S’s fingers wouldn’t stop at her hair and scalp but would once more keep traveling downward until they couldn’t go any farther. She wanted to feel that gentle pressure digging in _everywhere_.

“ _Nnnnnnines…”_ she softly sighed, heat rushing to her cheeks.

9S stopped again. 2B heard a faint sniffle.

“What’s wrong?” 2B asked.

“U-Uh, n-nothing,” he stammered. “Lie down again.”

2B did so, and 9S combed through her hair, fanning it out and letting it float around her head like a halo as the water washed away the lather.

“Now sit back up.”

2B sat up, her hair hanging from her head in lank and sodden strands, and 9S worked in more shampoo. This time it foamed up far more readily in 2B’s hair and felt so much softer and silkier.

9S washed the lather out of 2B’s hair again, then applied a different product: an oily cream that didn’t foam up the same way the shampoo had. He worked it methodically into every strand of hair, then drew back his hands. “You should leave the conditioner in for a couple minutes, then wash it out,” he told 2B. “It’ll make your hair softer and less likely to tangle.”

“Since when did you know so much about hair care?” 2B murmured, propping herself up against the side of the tub. The air on her damp skin felt frigid, contrasting strongly with the hot water still engulfing her lower half.

“Collecting intel is my thing, you know,” 9S reminded her. “Not all of it has to be _useful,_ especially not now.”

“Did you collect _that_ intel while I was… gone?”

9S fell silent. 2B cracked open her eyes and saw him fix his downcast eyes on the floor. He opened his mouth as if preparing to speak, then closed it again.

“I didn’t have much time for fun,” he finally said after a long pause, his voice coming out as barely even a croak, “without you.”

“I’m sorry,” 2B said. She still didn’t know the particular details of the special kind of hell 9S had gone through without her by his side, only that after a long and grueling battle he and A2 had killed each other. The pods had rebuilt and reactivated them both, along with 2B herself, but even though 9S’s body was pristine, his mind was not. He’d always enjoyed her company, but now couldn’t even stand not being in the same room as her. Being with him was almost like looking after a child now.

2B reached out and cupped her wet, soap-slicked hand against his cheek; 9S closed his eyes and leaned into her hand, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

He dredged his hand through the water. “In the old world, humans had all sorts of bath products,” he said, trying desperately to change the subject. “They’d mix perfumes and other aromatic compounds into shampoo and conditioner, so you could have your hair smell like lavender or peppermint or lilac… or strawberries, or anything else.” The brightness had left his voice, though; he wasn’t reciting these facts with his typical exuberance.

“I’m not sure what any of those things smell like,” 2B admitted. She’d never been the type of person to… how did the expression go? ‘Stop and sniff the flowers?’ 6O had always told her she had to do that, but such frivolous things simply had nothing to do with successfully completing her missions. Maybe now she’d smell every plant she came across, just to make up for lost time.

She leaned back until she was submerged in the water and ran her own fingers through her hair to wash out the conditioner. She almost felt as though she’d uploaded herself into a brand-new chassis. If she wanted to, she could keep lying down in here until the water cooled completely.

“But you could reverse-engineer that, too,” she said.

9S’s smile returned. “Along with the water jets.”

2B sat up and reached out to him once more, laying her hands on his cheeks and wiping away one of the more stubborn grease stains with her thumb. “Your turn,” she told him. “Do you want me to help?”

9S’s eyes flitted up and down, meeting her eyes for a split second before falling away from her face, then quickly jerking back up to focus on her eyes, then averting his gaze yet again. “U-Uh, um, h-h… y—um, uh, y-ye… o-okay,” he stammered, a bright crimson blush forming on his cheeks and growing stronger with every passing second. He fumbled for the drain stopper and yanked it free.

As the bathwater, now gray and almost opaque, rushed down the drain, 2B pulled 9S closer, her hands sliding to the back of his head, her fingers worming their way into his tangled and dirty hair. Her pulse quickened, his fingertips slipping and scrabbling against the water-slicked inner wall of the tub for purchase as he teetered over the edge, as 2B pressed her lips against his. She _felt_ the muffled moan of pleasure and contentment escape 9S’s mouth as much as she heard it.

2B had waited years for this kiss, and it had been worth every agonizing second and more.


End file.
